402
by galeaya
Summary: I'm sorry, Sasuke. There won't be a next time. Dedicated to Chapter 402.


gale: Chapter 402 was lovely, Kishimoto-sensei.

aya: thank you, sensei..

Disclaimer: Naruto is the genius creation of one Masashi Kishimoto. Do you see a genius here..? Yes..? Well, this genius is not Kishimoto-sensei.. No? -raises eyebrow- What are you still doing here? Go read!

* * *

_"I'm sorry, Sasuke. There won't be a next time.."_

.

.

"Teme! What do you think you're doing?!"

"I have nothing against you. Move aside." _Naruto, of all people. I didn't want to see you._

"What the hell!? What are you trying to say!"

"Move aside, Naruto. You're not my enemy."

"But you're going to destroy-"

"It doesn't concern you. Nothing concerns you." _Move aside. I don't want to hurt you._

"Get down, Naruto!"

"NO! What the hell are you doing Kakashi-sensei! It's Sasuke!"

"Kakashi-sensei! Don't!"

"Sasuke! What-"

"NARUTO!"

_._

.

_Even if you came to hate me because of it.._

.

"St-stop it, S-sasuk-ke.." _Sasuke-kun.. why are you doing this..?Why?_

Sharingan. Blood red. Mangekyou. The cursed.

_"Thank you, Sakura.."_

"You shouldn't have gone in my way." _I didn't want to kill you._

_"Sasuke-ku-"_

"S-sas'ke.."

_"Goodbye."_

"Goodbye." _But I have to._

Blades glinting. Eyes red. Blood. Red. Red. Red. Screams.

Red. Blood red. Blood.

"SAKURA!"

Red

_._

.

_He traded his pride for disgrace..._

.

"How could you, you bastard?! She loved you! Even when you left the village, she never stopped loving you!"

Rage. Blue. Red. Rage. Hate.

"She never meant anything to me. Just like you. You were never anything. You were just annoying."

"I'm going to make you pay for this!"

_So much hate..._

"Do you hate me now, Naruto? Do you want to kill me?"

_"You don't have enough hate, little brother.."_

"You don't hate me enough, Naruto."

_Not nearly enough_

_._

.

_He traded your love for your hate..._

.

"Sa.. Sasuke..?"

Panic. Pain. Confusion. Pain.

Pain. Pain. Pain.

"O..Oi.. Sasuke.. This.."

_._

.

_And even still..._

.

"Na.."

Bloodstained. Cursed. Fate.

_"Even if I break all the bones in your body.."_

"N-na-naruto.."

_"I'll drag you all the way back to Konoha if I have to.."_

Cursed. Mangekyou. Itachi. Sasuke.

_._

.

_Even still..._

_._

_"Nii-san!"_

.

.

"O-oi! Sasuke! Get up!"

_"Maybe next time, Sasuke."_

"GET UP!"

_Do you see it now, Sasuke?_

"This isn't funny!"

_How clear can your Sharingan see now?_

"GET UP!"

Dark. Cold. Calm.

"Nii-s-san..." _Naruto..._

_._

_Free_

_._

.

_He traded his pride for disgrace_

_He traded your love for your hate_

_And even still_

_Even still_

.

.

"SASUKE!"

_._

.

_He died with a smile on his face_

.

.

.

The skies were dark. The famed village was burning. To the ground... to the ground, it surely was going to burn to the ground. Konohagakure was in chaos, its children were running... to the ground, to the ground... It was all going back to the ground.

.

But he paid nothing any heed.

_._

_"Even if I break all the bones in your body.."_

"Sasuke..?"

_"I'll drag you all the way back to Konoha if I have to.."_

.

Naruto dropped to his knees, mind numb to all the panic filling the air. Sakura eyes were staring at him, unblinking, glassy. Kakashi's body was a few feet away, his severed eye was still so red... still cursed by the Sharingan he was never able use fully... But at his feet...

.

At his feet...

.

"Sasuke..?" Naruto reached out a hand to touch his face, the face that had been haunting him for years... The face he'd been dreaming of since three years ago...

_._

_That_ face

.

He was cold, and his skin felt clammy. Blood was trailing from the both corners of his mouth, down, down his chin, down to his neck. There was a gaping wound right in the center of his bare chest, and all Naruto could think was how wrong the picture was, how unreal the person in front of him looked.

.

How dead his smiling face seemed

.

He brought his fingers to his hair, fingers tangling with the strands. He tucked them behind one ear, sight getting blurry as he did. He didn't know why the world was so hazy... was it a genjutsu? Surely, Sasuke wasn't the one lying in front of him... Surely, this was just another one of his tricks... Surely, this was just an illusion...

.

Just a dream

.

"O-oi! Sasuke! Get up!"

_Sasuke wasn't dead... _

"GET UP!"

_He was coming home..._

"This isn't funny!"

_He was coming home... He had achieved his goal..._

"GET UP!"

_Sasuke..._

"Nii-s-san..."

_._

_Sasuke wasn't dead._

.

"SASUKE!"

_._

.

_"I'm sorry, Sasuke."_

_"Maybe next time."_

_"I exist as the ultimate obstacle you must overcome."_

_"How clear can your Sharingan see now?"_

_._

.

_And we'll continue to exist together.._

.

.

"I'll make them pay, Sasuke."

_"Tche. Usuratonkachi."_

"I promise."

_"Stop going after me Naruto."_

"I'll defeat Akatsuki."

_"Forget about me, Naruto."_

"I won't forget you."

_._

.

_"And we'll continue to exist together.."_

.

.

"As one."

.

.

.

From the depths of his rank cell, the Kyuubi howled.

* * *

gale: Who got confused? Raise your hands!

aya: -raises both hands plus her feet-

gale: uh.. I said hands.

aya: you confused me too much, I don't even know which is which anymore.

gale: -twitch-

aya: I didn't get it at all..

gale: Do you want me to explain..? If you people don't want to see what really went on, please don't proceed.

aya: EXPLAIN TO ME. -spazz-

gale: _Italics_ are someone's thoughts. Italics that look like _"this" _mean they were being spoken and thought of at the same time, either by separate people or by the same person. First part was Sasuke's POV. Second part is Naruto's..

aya: What? There was a first part..? -looks dumbfounded-

gale: "The skies were dark... " marks the POV shift. The scene is the same, only difference is that the 2nd part is how Naruto perceives things. The Sasu-Naru dialogue near the end is actually just Naruto speaking to himself. He's only hearing what he thinks Sasuke would have said if Sasuke were still alive... The Sasuke-parts were actually taken from several of what Sasuke said to Naruto in both anime and manga. You could think of the dialogue as Naruto remembering some of what Sasuke's told him in the years past.

aya: Sasuke died..?

gale: Uh, yes. I'd leave it to your imagination who killed him, but please take note of the Akatsuki reference near the end.

aya: Akatsuki killed him?!

gale: -shrugs- They could have. Or Naruto could have, unintentionally, because Akatsuki was somewhat able to intrude. Or something like that. I mean, we all know Naruto cares about Sasuke too much to be able to kill him.

aya: What about the Itachi reference?

gale: As the title suggests, this is dedicated to Chapter 402. Almost all the italicized text belongs to Itachi, meaning they were spoken by Itachi in the manga. Some were Madara's. I mainly used dialogue from Chapter 402, but there were some taken from 401.

aya: any more notes?

gale: YES. To people who hated Chapter 402, you are free to express your opinion about it. But please, DO NOT BASH KISHIMOTO. It's his story, and as his fans, we do not have the right to bash him as a person, or as a manga-ka. Naruto is his idea, and we should all just be thankful that he even made a manga for us to enjoy. If you do not like where the story is going (enough to hate the author himself), then go find another fandom that would cater to your qualifications. I, myself, did not like the way Sasuke reacted to the "truth" (It was exactly why Itachi kept the "truth" from him. Idiot little brother. GAH.), but I still loved it all the same. Why? Because it showed that Sasuke really still cared for Itachi (loved him, even) despite saying that he hated his guts. He-

aya: We should cut it here.

gale: -frown- well, okay. I used "." to fix the format. Sorry if it bothers people. FFNet ate the spaces, so..

aya: -sigh- Thanks for wasting your time here! -bows-


End file.
